By CRAIG FREILICH

CANTON – The Canton Village Board of Trustees voted unanimously Monday to provisionally approve St. Lawrence Health System’s application for their new project on East Main Street to be annexed into the village.

The board did not appoint Basil Chaney as acting chief of police as many candidates from the department will likely be considered for the permanent position.

Trustee Carol Pynchon said there is a memorandum of understanding containing “a few minor changes” to the arrangement with St. Lawrence Health System that will be affirmed before the final annexation vote Monday April 5.

Those items include spelling out what parts of the property will be taxable and which will not. The property between East Main – part of U.S. Rt. 11 – and Judson Street Road is much larger than will be needed for the $25 million development of the building, and any further commercial development would likely be taxed, Pynchon said. The agreement would also cover taxation of areas of the building of a commercial nature that are not related to medical work.

SLHS has also agreed, Pynchon said, to begin paying property taxes to the county, village, town and school district in June 2017, even though the property was not officially on the village tax roles by March 1 this year. They could have claimed an exception and begun paying taxes in June 2018 instead.

The agreement will also cover access to the campus. The main entrance will be on Rt. 11 and supplemental access will be from Rt. 310 on the west side of the property.

Residents of Judson street, at the back of the property, expressed concern that SLHS would be developing some of that property, potentially ruining the character of the Judson Street neighborhood. SLHS has provided assurances “that has never been part of the plan,” Pynchon said. Much of that land can’t be developed, Pynchon said, because it is wetland. Meanwhile the farming that has occupied part of that land will continue.

All of those provisions are expected to be confirmed before next week’s annexation vote.

One of the key features of annexation will be the provision of water and sewer service to the campus.

Pynchon said the board has been assured that village water capacity is sufficient to handle the extra demands of the SLHS development in spite of the fact that the village has been looking for years for a second source of water.

Despite the fact that the village has had concerns about the long-term capacity of the Waterman Hill water source for some time, “the superintendent has confirmed that there is the necessary capacity, for what’s projected right now,” Pynchon said.

She said the SLHS development “will not have high water need.

“We continue to look for a second source, and we’re getting close,” she said.

Meanwhile sewage service is not expected to be a problem, since the large expansion of wastewater treatment capacity to handle waste from the former Kraft plant in Canton. The plant has since closed.

Pynchon said she does not “anticipate any problems with the vote next Monday” to approve the annexation, and the items on the memorandum of understanding “are just prudent.”

She said the community is looking forward to what they believe “will be a huge health boost for all the people of the North Country,” and not just for Canton.

In other action Monday night, the board declined to appoint Basil Chaney as acting chief of police on the retirement of Chief Lori McDougal, although he will serve in that capacity until the naming of a new chief.

Chaney has filled in for McDougal as de-facto acting chief during her vacations, Pynchon said, and the board has confidence in his ability, “but the (Civil Service) test has been given, and several people from the force have taken the test, so there will be other candidates. I think Basil will be one of them,” she said, and she feels the appointment of a new chief “will happen pretty quickly.”